No You Didn't Dream It, Suicide Squad Won An Oscar
Forget the Best Picture mix-up, this was the worst goof.
Some will say that the biggest goof of Oscar night was the person who gave Warren Beatty the wrong envelope for Best Picture, causing one of the biggest embarrassments in Oscar history. It wasn't, though that ranks pretty high. It wasn't when they used a picture of a very much alive person in In Memoriam, either, though someone should probably be fired for that too.
The biggest mistake was vindicating Suicide Squad with an Oscar. Sure, it might have been one of the slightest Oscars available on the night - Hair and Make-Up - and it only beat two other contenders, but after the ceremony the only thing that matters are the two words Warner Bros can preface Suicide Squad with from now until eternity.
"Oscar Winner Suicide Squad".
The achievement says nothing of the studio's achievement - it's very much a departmental acknowledgment - but it gives the film a greater purpose and substance than it is ever due. It is, without question, the worst Oscar winning film ever: it is the worst comic book movie of the last ten years at least. And it is an Oscar winner.
And worse, it now has the exact same number of Oscars as Citizen Kane, Alien, The Empire Strikes Back, Dog Day Afternoon and 2001: A Space Odyssey. In other words, if you're looking for ammunition for why the Oscars don't matter, you've got it.
Of course it's not an even keel for all films that win, but it allows that narrative to be spun. It happens organically, and it's very, very wrong.